Girls volleyball: Fremd gears up in time to win the West

Anyone who watches volleyball on a regular basis knows how often momentum plays a big part in the sport.

And never was it more prevalent than in the most important match of the Mid-Suburban West girls volleyball season on Thursday night.

In a match to decide the title, visiting Palatine won the first set by 5 points over Fremd and then pulled away to a 7-point lead in the second set at 13-6 when Fremd coach Curt Pinley called for a time out.

"During the time out, we said to the girls that 'We've got to find another gear,' " Pinley said. "And they went back on the floor and found it."

And now they find themselves playing in the Mid-Suburban League title match for the first time since 2009.

The Vikings rallied for a 20-25, 25-20, 25-21 triumph and will face Hersey (19-5, 8-2) in Arlington Heights on Thursday.

The Vikings (16-7, 9-1) finished one match ahead of Palatine (24-5, 8-2) for their third West title under 19-year veteran Pinley. The first divisional triumph for Pinley came in 1999.

"We've come back from deficits like that (13-6) before," said Ysabel Lee, one of nine seniors on the Vikings' roster. "We knew we could do it again. We just needed energy."

Taking her cue from setter and classmate Natalie Freund (35 assists, 17 digs), Lee helped energize the Vikings with a macth-high 15 kills as the Vikings surged back in Set 2 behind the serve of Freund and junior Jess Rizzo.

Back-to-back blocks by senior Kailyn Bryk got the Vikes to within 14-13 and forced Pirates coach Dan Gavin to call a time out.

A block by Beverly Ryan and ace by Alyssa Kronberg (21 digs) extended the Pirates' lead back to 16-13,

But the Vikes charged back to grab a 17-16 advantage on back-to-back kills from Lee.

The set was tied at 17,18 19 before Fremd pulled ahead for good, getting an ace from junior Jess Mazur and block by Bryk for a 22-19 cushion.

Rizzo's kill off a block and Bryk's kill off a quick set from Freund ended the set at 25-20.

"Palatine is a phenomenal team," Pinley said. "You've got to bring your best game to beat them. We weren't at our best all the time but we had a lot of great moments."

Lee's kill off a block, an ace by Karolina Sas (23 digs) and a tip by Bailey Hooker gave Fremd a 3-0 lead in Set 3.

It was then tied at 4, 5, 6, 7 and 11 before Fremd took the lead for good at 12-11 on Hooker's tip.

With Sas serving 8 straight points, Fremd went ahead 17-11 and never looked back.

"To be honest Fremd was the team that deserved to win the match," Gavin said. "We did some nice things in spurts but they did it more consistently. They put pressure on us and kind of wore us down. Their defense was phenomenal."

The Pirates got back to within 22-19 when setter Sydney Christiansen (25 assists), with her back turned to the net, had to send a third ball over the net and it fell for a kill.

A big dig by Katie Lindert resulted in a kill by Claire Chaplinsky making it 22-20 but Fremd closed it out with 3 of the next 4 points, including a kill from Lee who went leaping high into Freund's perfect set to make it match point.

"We had defeated Palatine before (in conference play)," said the Southern Illinois-bound Lee. "So we knew we could do it. We put in so much time practicing."

Rizzo added 9 kills and Hooker 7.

Chaplinsky led Palatine with 12 kills while Corey Rinella had 5 and Haley Holz 4.

"We talked in the huddle when it was 13-6 about the match not being over," Gavin said. "And Fremd came back and proved that was the case. This was a great character win for them.

"We played pretty decent in the first set and for the first half of the second. After that, we just played too casual."

Pinley's team was led on serve receive by Rizzo (19-of-19), Sas (15-of-15) and Hooker (14-of-14).

"We kept the ball off the floor," said Pinley who is 2 wins shy of 400 for his girls volleyball career at Fremd (he also has more than 400 as the boys coach). "We aggravated them just enough to get a three-set win.

"Anytime you play Palatine it's a big match. But with both teams carrying just one loss into the final conference match, it's huge to be able to finish like this."